An academic study carried out by Roosevelt University in the US has concluded that Reuters' coverage of the Middle East conflict is systematically biased in favour of the Palestinians.

The study, which took three months, claims to have found over 1,100 "ethical" or "reporting" failures in a sample of 50 Reuters articles.

The "failures" were divided into three broad categories - "propaganda", "logical fallacies" and "violations of Reuters' charter" - and then split into 41 further subcategories.

Head researcher Henry Silverman detected a significant shift in audience attitudes in the Palestinians' favour once the articles had been read.

According to the study, this came about as a result of exposure to "atrocity propaganda" and the "appeal to pity fallacy".

Reading the articles also prompted the audience to take supportive action on behalf of the Palestinians, the study found.

A spokesperson for the news agency said: "Reuters is committed to accurate and impartial reporting. We strenuously disagree that Reuters uses propaganda techniques in our coverage of the Middle East and believe that a comprehensive scholarly study of Reuters' journalism would support that conclusion."